


Two Halves Make A Whole

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Brotherly Love, Bullying, Fist Fights, Major Character Injury, Plans For The Future, Pre-Canon, Revenge, Sparklings, Teasing and Insults
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-21
Updated: 2014-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-25 23:09:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1665914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skyquake and Dreadwing weren't always warriors. In fact, they came from a pretty low-class family, but Dreadwing still decided to reach for the title, untrained and barely of age though he was. He never told Skyquake his motive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Halves Make A Whole

“Stop your fidgeting and I will be able to finish this quickly,” Dreadwing ordered as he grabbed a medical buffer and prepared to turn it on.

“But it’s going to hurt. I don’t want that,” Skyquake whispered, hands clenching and unclenching on his knees.

“I know you don’t.” Dreadwing forced his voice to soften slightly. “But these cracks in your armor won’t buff themselves. I promise I’ll turn it on the gentlest setting.” So saying, he punched in the activation code and pressed the softly-whirring brush against Skyquake’s chest. He kept his optics lowered, unwilling—un _able_ to watch his brother’s face screw up in that all-too-familiar expression of pain. Still he heard the sharp hiss of vents struggling to repress agony.

“Aggh—” Skyquake’s voice was filled with pained static.

“Hush, brother, it’ll be alright.” Dreadwing ran his fingertips over Skyquake’s knee comfortingly but jerked back when he remembered the plate was dislocated. The sudden movement from Dreadwing made Skyquake jump too, unable to stile his cry that time.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Dreadwing gasped. In one fluid movement he turned off the buffer and threw it aside, climbing behind Skyquake on their shared berth and scooping his twin into his lap, hugging him protectively.

“Dwing,” Skyquake panted after an apprehensive moment, “you’re still hurting me.”

Dreadwing immediately relaxed the embrace, allowing Skyquake to reposition himself. The blue mech was only slightly surprised when Skyquake turned onto his stomach so they were facing each other and hooked his scratched, dented arms around his chest.

Swallowing hard, Dreadwing turned his optics away from his brother’s again. Skyquake lowered his head to rest in the curve of Dreadwing’s throat cables.

Even though this position was more comfortable for both of them, Dreadwing grew in his edginess. Being twins, Dreadwing and Skyquake had something more than an EM field—it was, truly, a spark field. In this close proximity he could feel Skyquake’s injuries, not just physically but emotionally. His share of their spark field was aching with Skyquake’s sensations of discomfort.

“Brother,” Dreadwing burst out abruptly.

“Yes,” Skyquake acknowledged him without lifting his head.

Dreadwing was flustered by Skyquake’s uncharacteristically quiet tone. “What happened to you? Who did this and why?”

There was silence for so long that Dreadwing wondered if his twin had fallen into recharge. At last Skyquake breathed a pair of names, so softly and timidly that Dreadwing demanded he repeat himself.

“It was Caliper and Hinge.”

Dreadwing tensed. Those brothers were the terrorizers of this specific sector, using their warriors’ class and greater strength against the families who lived here. “Survival of the fittest”, they would say if anyone challenged them.

“And their reason?” Dreadwing asked, trying to remain calm for his brother’s sake.

“I struck first.” Skyquake’s spark field nudged against Dreadwing’s with a mixture of pride and regret, the latter being the winning emotion at the moment.

“Very well,” Dreadwing urged. “ _Your_ reason?” He felt a blast of anger from Skyquake as soon as the words were spoken.

“They said that because we are twins, because we each own half of one spark, we are only half the mechs they are! They dared to impugn our bond and our honor!” Skyquake tried to sit up so Dreadwing could see just how irate he was over the situation, but a sudden lockup in his system stopped his movement.

“Skyquake?” Dreadwing shifted and his spark field heaved in panic when he saw his brother’s optics sputter out. “Skyquake!” He clutched at the arms of his twin, shaking him slightly and pleading with the childish nickname he had sworn not to use again. “Skyke, answer me!” 

There was a sudden cough of feedback and then Skyquake’s optics glowed again, though far dimmer than before. Venting sluggishly, he let his head sink down against Dreadwing’s shoulder.

“Skyquake,” Dreadwing repeated, his voice sharp in a mix of fear and relief, “there’s damage, more that you haven’t shown me.”

“Yes,” Skyquake murmured, shifting so he was on Dreadwing’s right, snug against his side. “The damage they cause is usually more than cosmetic, isn’t it?”

“Indeed, youngling,” Dreadwing agreed deliberately after a long pause, carefully keeping his spark field flat and emotionless so Skyquake wouldn’t figure out what he was thinking. “You should recharge, regain your strength.”

“Will you...stay with me?” Skyquake slurred, his exhaustion stark in the fact that he didn’t even frown at the term “youngling”.

“Until you’re resting, yes.” Almost before the words were out of Dreadwing’s mouth, Skyquake’s field relaxed and Dreadwing was free to let his wrath crawl to the surface. Caliper and Hinge had decided to target Skyquake of all people. Even though Dreadwing had been born a single moment prior to Skyquake, he was his brother’s other half. That meant they were a threat to him as well.

“They think I won’t protect my own?” Dreadwing ground out, lifting his hand to rub Skyquake’s back. “Together, brother, our spark is whole and strong. I will keep you safe by making sure _their_ sparks won’t be.”


End file.
